Day 31 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 10/27/16 - At Sea to Darwin 1

Today was the first of 3 sea days on our way to Darwin. After breakfast and our devotional time with Rev. Barry, we went outside on deck 6 to watch the beautiful green water slip by along with many atolls and barren islands. We also had scenic commentary by a reef pilot, but he was hard to understand because of over modulation. The morning lecture was given by the astronomer, Dr.Alan Wright on the top c of contact with other worlds. Afterwards he held a cosmic chat in the piano bar that was well attended. The afternoon lecture by Philip Creaser on the gemstone Amber was really good. It was followed by a lesson by Louis Burns on playing the didgeridoo. He had about 30 pieces of white PVC pipe which has a tonal quality similar to a wood based instrument. It actually was fun watching mostly old people blowing on white pieces of pipe. Hyperventilation was in play! Afterwards I walked laps on deck 6 to get my 5 miles in and watch the world go by at 16 miles per hour. Early tomorrow morning we should be in the Bass Straits.  

It was Gala night again and we had a couple from Sydney and one from Alaska. It was a good discussion. The evening's main stage entertainment was Vox Furtura in a reprise show. They were once again VERY good. I'd say they are in the top 5 of all the entertainment we've enjoyed on cruise ships. The evening movie was 'Dead Calm' which was a thriller starring Nicole Kidman set on a sailboat and filmed near Hamilton Island which we visited a week ago.

Remember while the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 32 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 10/28/16 - At Sea to Darwin 2

It was another lazy day at sea. The water color changed from a greenish blue to a deeper blue as we crossed the Arafura Sea. And the temperature continued to climb although walking around on deck 6 was quite comfortable especially since we are near the equator and the sun is overhead due to our westward course.  

The morning lectures were good. Kelly and Melanie presented on the shore excursions on the next part of this segment. Dr. Write spoke on the topic of the Sun. In the afternoon Philip Creaser spoke about mammal fossils and Kelly returned to give location information for the next three ports of call. Again both were quite good. Now I had to pay the price for attending the lectures: I finished walking my 5 miles for today (it's 4 laps on Deck 6 to a mile).

Dinner this evening was in the Canaletto and it was wonderful. We had an ocean view seat and our waiter was the same waiter who typically serves us in the morning and remembered our tea preferences. For a those unaccustomed to the Canaletto, it's one of two specialty extra charge restaurants onboard, and its theme is Italian cuisine. The seafood soup and baby romaine lettuce salad was excellent as was the grilled shrimp and cod.  

The evening's entertainment was Louis Finkel, a very accomplished pianist. He was quite good and his closing medley of a salute to New York City was magical. The movie was a documentary about the women's pursuit cycling team in the London Olympics. This team was a definite underdog with a minimal budget competing with Australian and British teams with $40,000,0000 budgets. But they earned the silver medal!

Afterwards we took a short walk on the deck, and it was extremely warm for 11pm as we are approaching the equator.

Day 33 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/29/16 - At Sea to Darwin 3

One starts to appreciate the size of the Australian continent when it's now the third day of crossing a bay on our way to Darwin!

This morning after a really interesting devotional during which Rev. Barry interviewed an 89 year old retired pastor who had a very full and long ministry in Australia, we walked a mile on a very warm deck. For days and days we've not seen any wildlife in the water, and the water is now a deep blue color. The reef pilot, Gerrit-Jan Hulsebos gave a lecture on reef piloting. He's Dutch and his first ship was the Maasdam. Now he works for Australian Reef Pilots (one of two companies providing Great Barrier Reef pilotage services).  

Alan Wright presented a lecture on where we came from and following a quick lunch Philip Creaser presented a session on the Riversleigh Wirld Heritage Fossil Site that he dug at. It was the least attended of his sessions but still interesting. I then spent the rest of the afternoon walking the deck to get my 5 miles in. Along the way I finally saw a number of flying fish and 3 dolphins or porpoises. It's been several weeks since I've seen any wildlife from the ship, so that was my excitement for the day.

After dinner in the Rotterdam Dining Room, the entertainment tonight was a variety show of Francis Diatschenenko and Tommy Proulx (guitarist and saxophonist) followed by a documentary, The Infiltrant, about taking down a Colombian drug lord.

Day 30 - Downunder 2016 - Wed - 10/26/16 - Cairns

It wax a smooth overnight sail from Hamilton Island. With a scheduled 10am arrival, we awakened leisurely and took our breakfast in the Lido. We skipped the 9am devotional time as we wanted to watch the sail in. It's a very narrow channel with lots of markers which indicated we were at high tide. We had really nice seats up in the Crow's Nest and the city slowly came into view in the brilliant green water darkened in numerous spots by reefs. After making one last left hand 90° turn we headed for the cruise terminal dock. Upon reaching the dock the ship did a 180° clockwise rotation to be lined up to do a straight departure later in the day.

We met in the Ocean Bar the other two couples who we were taking the Eco Safari tour with and waited for the clearance announcement. It never came so we joined the line to disembark the ship. After a brief wait, suddenly the line began moving; and we were off the ship on a very steep gangway. Our driver and guide, Kevin, owner of Wilderness Eco Tours met us and we all paid him $358AU per couple before getting in his pristine Toyota Land Cruiser.  

As he drove us out of the city, he began to orient us to the area. Without going into a blow by blow description of the tour I would summarize it by saying that we spent much of the day on very narrow and twisty mountain roads crossing from the flood plain through the tropical rain forest into the outback and back again. We had great stops at the Copperlode Dam, another high waterfall along Davies Creek that Angela and I scampered down the rocks to look at more closely, the Barron Falls Lookout and Railway platform, as well as an ice cream stop at Emerald Creek Ice Cream where the products are all made there! While I couldn't partake in the ice cream, they had scrumptious jerky! Also during the day we had a splendid homemade picnic in the rain forest along a little creek. Many of the roads and numerous water crossings would have been wonderful to ride on a motorcycle. Back in town, Kevin took us to a place next to the city hall where there were lots of fruit bats hanging in a tree. They were quite noisy and moving around a bit but wouldn't be flying until dark.

Since we were only a few blocks from the ship Angela and I elected to walk back to the ship which we did in a meandering way along the sea wall and downtown streets. It's worth noting that there is NO swimming in the beach areas adjoining the city as it it built on reclaimed mangrove swampy areas and home to saltwater crocodiles! By crikey, I'm not tempting fate.

We ate dinner in the Lido and it was dark by 7pm so we elected to watch the movie, Sapphire Girls, at its 8pm showing in the Showtime at Sea. We had seen it previously on another cruise and it's quite good. The rest of the evening was pretty low key since there wasn't much going on around the ship.  

About a week ago, a pipe burst in the aft end of the ship on deck 6 and a number of passengers needed to be moved and many fans were installed to draw away the moisture. Tonight those were all gone.

We now have three sea days before reaching Darwin.  

While the destination is important, remember to savor our the journey.

Day 29 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 10/25/16 - Hamilton Island

Waking up early to the rumble of the propellers and turning on the bow TV channel we could see that we were once again in paradise only this time at Hamilton Island. From the Lido we could see the greenish tint to the water. Because the harbor is relatively shallow, today would be a tender port with a combination of ship based and shore based tenders.

With our 4 star Mariner status we got out on one of the earlier tenders. Upon reaching shore we obtained a free boarding ticket for the 20 minute island shuttle tour which gave us a feel for the island. Essentially the island is a water playground for Australians. There are residences and condos and hotels, and in general I'd venture a guess that they are expensive. A later visit to a local real estate office confirmed this!

After the shuttle tour we walked back over to the Catseye Beach area and snorkeled a bit in the morning seeing only a few fish. We decided to wait for the 1:30pm low tide and ate some lunch and did our online US Election voting in the Wildlife Park cafe. We then headed back to the beach at one o'clock and snorkeled quite a bit farther out. There we saw quite a few more fish and my wife saw a sting ray. Another guest reported seeing a turtle. A cool thing was that the beach hut provided full body suits called stingers which served as protection against jellyfish and the sun! After snorkeling we walked back to the marina and strolled up and down the Main Street. One of the cooler things we saw were a bunch of beautiful white Cockatoo birds that were begging for food from some people eating outside along the harbor.

Departing the harbor area we got on the last tender (one of the large shore based ones) which departed at 3:30pm and we were the last 2 passengers to scan on to the vessel (a new first for us!).  

The sailaway was one of the prettiest we've experienced. The Maasdam rotated 180 degrees and steered a zigzag course in between the numerous small islands and reefs through very green water and warm air temperatures. After showering we enjoyed a very pleasant dinner in the main dining room with another Cruise Critic couple from Ontario, Canada.  

The evening's main stage entertainment was another saxophonist from California (Pete) following which I watched one of the Terminator movies (not a favorite genre for me) before heading for bed. Tomorrow we are not due to dock in Cairns until 10am, and we have an exciting day planned.

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 28 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 10/24/16 - At sea to Hamilton Island

On this sea day we left the room this morning to a stronger smell of sewage and spoke with our cabin attendants who had reported the issue two days ago.

Fortunately up in the Lido for breakfast, it was a pleasant and sunny day to eat breakfast before the morning devotional time with Reverand Barry. Afterwards I went to the Windows 10 class and realized it's no longer sponsored by Microsoft. A HAL employee teaches them. These classes are very popular but for me a bit too basic. And they avoid all issues of connectivity with Apple or Android products which is sad as MANY guests have questions along those lines. I'd love to teach or share that sort of information.

As the Seattle Seahawks were playing on Sunday night football (shown here on Monday morning), we watched the game until 11:30am and went to a special Indonesian Luncheon for the guests doing the two segments of the cruise. The food was the most flavorful of the cruise so far. We adjourned back to the Crow's Nest to watch the remainder of the game which resulted in a 3-3 tie.

During the Captain's noon navigational and meteorological update, he reminded us about protecting ourselves from the Zika virus by covering up in the Indonesian ports and using bug spray (which we have!).

We then joined the afternoon speaker (Philip Creaser) presentation on Volcanoes and Limestone formations around the world many of which are World Heritage sites. He's a great speaker who doesn't read from notes! He was followed by Louis Green, an Aboriginal artist, who gave a digeridoo presentation that was quite good. He answered a number of questions about aboriginal culture and digi's.

From there we headed out to deck 6 to walk off the big lunch (20 laps or about 5 miles). The seas were calm and with a following breeze, there was no apparent wind. The temperature was quite comfortable as we are sailing north to the equator.

We took a very light dinner in the Lido as the lunch was so filling. The evening's entertainment was Vox Furtura, a men's quartet and talent finalists in Britain's Got Talent TV show. They were superb! We also took in the movie, Jane Got a Gun, before watching the end of the second Vox Furtura show.

Day 27 - Downunder 2016 - Sun - 10/23/16 - Brisbane

Talk about a quickie! We arrived in Brisbane around 7am and docked at the cruise terminal located on the river that meanders through town. Since we didn't need to disembark until 9am, we had a leisurely breakfast and I uploaded a large number of my daily blogs. We met with our little group of 6 and proceeded off the ship where we met our guide for today, Charlie. Charlie is a volunteer for Brisbane Greeters which is an arm of the local government which promotes tourism. The tour is free and no tips are accepted, although contributions can be sent to the Brisbane Greeters.  

Charlie led us to the high speed ferry which would be our method of transportation from the ship to the downtown area. These ferries called Watercats are catamarans and they are a major way of getting around and are pretty cool to travel on. The ferry made multiple stops on both sides of the river before reaching our stop in downtown about an hour later. We then strolled our way to the lovely botanical gardens where the flowers and trees were beautiful, the birds prolific, and an excellent example of repurposed ground. Upon entering the garden, we spotted this unique looking vehicle which seemed to be used for hauling person's in wheel chairs. The driver parked the vehicle and exited it in his wheelchair. He was quiteapproachable and I learned that he designed the vehicle and it was constructed from the front of a wrecked vehicle and a custom rear chassis. It was VERY professionally built. I'll have pictures in my photo album which will be posted at the completion of the cruise. Leaving the garden, we walked by the technology university and towards downtown. Along with the way we saw many historical buildings including the original government office, post office, print shop, and the treasury building and many more. The latter building is now a casino. On the main shopping street, the TI office uses the very ornate lobby of a former theater. It's drop dead gorgeous!

Following a visit to the ANZAC Memorial we made our way back to the ferry for our hour ride back to the ship.

Onboard the ship we enjoyed a small snack to ride us over until dinner before watching the sailaway until the Sunday church service at 4pm. Dinner this night was back in the Main Dining Room where all three couples had RV's in addition to cruising. This led to a very energetic table discussion.

The evening's entertainment was Francis Diatschenko, a very good classical pianist from Darwin. Given that we had previously seen the movie, we adjourned to our room to watch the World Series of Poker and get to bed a little earlier. On the way back in our hallway, we detected a sewer smell. Hopefully that's not a bad sign of things to come!

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 26 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/22/16 - At sea to Brisbane

Finally another day at sea!

We met the new chaplain, Barry, from Melbourne at the devotional time and then headed to the first presentation of the day on the upcoming ports of call by Kelly and Melanie. Afterwards we had a Cruise Critic meet and greet in the Crow's Nest where we connected with other CC members. Thank you to those who came up and thanked me for the blog. I'm a bit behind in getting it posted although I keep it written on a current basis.

We had two new lecturers today but we missed the first one due to the M&G. Our digerie doo player gave another demo and the second lecture by the geologist was quite good. Gala night occurred once again and we had great table talk. The evening's entertainnentcwasxa Captain's Toast followed by the cast show of Atlantic Crossing. We concluded our evening watching the movie 'Eye in the Sky' which was very good about the use of spy satellites and drones and related equipment.

Day 25 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 10/21/16 - Sydney -2

6:45am came really early and inside the cabin was the acrid smell of smoke. I checked all of our chargers but it wasn't one of those creating the smell. We got dressed and finally looked outside where there was a significant haze in the air from what we learned later was undergrowth burning.

After breakfast, we went to our tour bus which was to take us to a Nature Park and to the Blue Mountains. The Featherdale Wildlife Park was wonderful and it was good to see the wallabies, koalas, echidnas, birds, and kangaroos. The one hour visit was too short, and it was crowded. We headed on to Katoomb where we saw the 3 Sisters and a cool aboriginal presentation. Afterwards we had a great lunch at the Heritage Hotel before heading back to the ship. We acquired some HOHO bus info and based on what we saw, we decided to change our end of cruise plans to come back and spend time in the Blue Mountains!

The tour busses arrived back around 4:15pm and there was supposed to be a Muster Drill at 4:30pm, but that was delayed until 5:00pm as it took time to clear the tour bus participants back on the ship.  

After the Muster Drill, we shoved off and began the last 29 days of this cruise for us. Up in the Crow's Nest, a group of HAL travel agents forced a number of us out of prime seats for the sailaway. I personally think that during the sailaway no group should be allocated prime and exclusive viewing areas.

After the sailaway we grabbed a quick dinbercin the Lido before watching a New Zealand movie about 2 people trying to escape from the law in the NZ outback. It was quite good! The evening entertainment was 'Listen to the Music' which introduced the cast for this segment and allowed us to meet the new cruise director, Jeremy. Afterwards I spent the next few hours in the Lido updating my blog as I was a few days behind. Fortunately tomorrow is a sea day!

While the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.

Day 24 - Down-under 2016 - Thu - 10/20/16 - Sydney -1

We had a leisurely wake up as we didn't need to get off the ship promptly. After breakfast we waited for the clearance for in-transit guests to leave the ship. In fact all guests and personnel had to leave the ship and pass through immigration. Once we were through immigration, we headed for the shuttle to Darling Harbor as the ship was moored at the White Bay Cruise terminal which is a nice terminal (it's just located in a remote harbor location). The shuttle dropped us off by the acquarium and we walked up to Kent Street which had a camera store that I had located online. They had none of the model I was seeking, so we walked a few more blocks to a second store which had none also. But the clerk recommended a store across the street BJ HIFI. This store didn't have it either, but he checked his online inventory and found a display model without the battery in their Broadway store which was about a 2 mile walk away. So I bought it (a great price at $266US) and had it held for me. Why you ask would I go through all of this? I have a Nikon AW100 that the display quit working at Dravuni Island while snorkeling. The replacement model, an AW130, uses the same batteries so I wouldn't need to resupply myself with another charger or battery.

So off we headed on our walk down George Street past the Great Southern Hotel where we stayed 2 years ago, through Chinatown, and to the store where we picked up the camera. I put my battery and SIM card in it, set up the settings and fired it up. It worked! Along the way we picked up a couple travel guides for Australia and at some spicy Mexican food for lunch.  

It was then a long walk back to the shuttle which took us back to the ship where we unloaded extra gear, changed clothes and headed back on the shuttle to the acquarium. From there we walked to the Sydney Opera House where we watched My Fair Lady (directed by Julie Andrews). After the performance, another couple shared a cab with us back to the ship.

Back onboard around 11:15pm, I spent another couple hours doing electronic research and attempting to set up my Australian SIM card. Since morning was going to come early, I finally had to stop without it being successfully being set up.

While the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.

Day 23 - Down-under 2016 - Wed - 10/19/16 - At Sea to Sydney 2

Today was the last day at sea for about 700 passengers. We had our final two lectures: Sandra Millikan on Melbourne and Barry Dreyer on a key Australian/NZ battle in the Vietnam war. Both were quite good. There was also the Indonesian crew show at 10:30 followed by a mass sendoff by a large number of the crew. Kiki also announced that she was leaving HAL on Thursday. I didn't hear what she was planning to do.

The evening's entertainment was a combined show of Annie Frances and Ashley Curruthers. Both were excellent. While the Marriage Game was played in the Showroom at Sea, we elected to watch a chick flick about two female cousins saving their inherited Brooklyn pastry shop. We also watched portions of the baseball playoffs.

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 22 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 10/18/16 - At Sea to Sydney 1

For many of our fellow passengers, today would be their next to last day on the ship and the daily schedule was filled with activities. Besides our morning devotional time with Father Robert, the Chief Engineer, Tom Mahon, gave a virtual tour of the engine room to a packed Wajang theater (usually this presentation is given in the Showroom at Sea but it was being used by a Mariner's award ceremony) I found the most interesting statistic to be that the ship gets 62 feet to the gallon of fuel!

We went to the awards ceremony and the luncheon that followed. Following a mile walking the deck, one o'clock found us back in the Showroom for 3 straight sessions. Sandra Millikin presented an architectural history of Melbourne, Barry Dreyer presented on the Japanese mini-sub attack on Sydney in WWII, and the cast of singers and dancers fielded questions from the audience. This group will be on the Maasdam until November 18 until 

It was the last gala night and the surf and turf was good and the fast main dining room service continued. The cast presented 'Classique' which is a favorite of ours and we've seen other versions of it on other HAL ships. We ended our night watching the movie 'Comedy loves Misery' rather than attend the final Captain's Ball.

DayDay 21 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 10/17/16 - Noumea, New Caledonia

We woke up with a high anticipation to two snorkeling excursions today. We were first greeted by an energetic indigenous dance troupe and a quick breakfast in the Lido followed. Then as we reported to the Showroom at Sea for our excursion passes, an announcement was made over the PA system that 'due to sustained high winds, all snorkeling trips were cancelled for today'. Bummer!! We heard the other options, but deferred our decision until after returning to our stateroom to change clothes and leave our snorkeling gear behind. Back at the Showroom at Sea, we decided to take the Choo Choo Train to get a lay of the land. It was excellent, and over two hours, it gave us a perspective of various locations of the the city.

Back at the port we wandered around looking for electronic stores in search of a replacement camera for my waterproof camera who's display quit working at Dravuni Island. The supply of waterproof cameras was quite sparse and in the end I didn't purchase one. I'll look again in Sydney. We used an ATM to get some local currency for some lunch and souvenirs. We then walked back to the American Square and checked out the McDonald's. It was super crowded so we found a a little French Cafe and enjoyed some French sandwiches and sodas.

Refreshed, we went to the Noumea cultural museum which cost us only $0.50 to get in! They had a lot of artifacts, but there was virtually no explanations in English. My wife was loving it as she speaks French, I got bored so we split up and I walked across town to the WWII museum which I found to be quite good. They had an English audio guide and I listened to virtually all of the pre-recorded material in the museum. Over a million US troops passed through New Caledonia (which means New Scotland) on their way to battles in the Pacific. 

After touring the museum I made my way back to the port where I met up with my wife. We purchased some souvenirs and walked back to the park where there was free WIFI. Since most everyone from the two cruise ships was back at their respective ship, getting on the free WIFI was pretty easy. After we had checked email and Facebook, we walked back to the ship and reboarded it 20 minutes before the scheduled reboarding time of 4:30pm.

The sailaway was quite interesting because of the high winds and the jagged course and the numerous reefs to be avoided. But we made it safely out and eventually dropped off our pilot quite a ways out to sea. We took dinner in the Lido so we wouldn't have to freshen up and were then entertained by an energetic Aussie pianist, Ashley Carruthers which was followed by a To Tell the Truth game show.

Day 20 - Downunder 2016 - Sun - 10/16/16 - Mystery Island

Mystery Island will continue to be a mystery as we were unable to anchor and tender due to high winds and sea swells with projected worsening conditions throughout the day. While in the anchoring point, the Captain came on the PA system and announced we would not stop here and would have an unscheduled sea day. Kiki, our cruise director, then announced there would shortly be a revised daily schedule available by 10:30am. It was out by 9:30am.  

We watched portions of the baseball playoffs and tried walking the deck, but the wind was pretty intense and the ship was both pitching and rolling which made for an unenjoyable walk.  

Sandra Millikin gave an interesting slide show on unusual Australian buildings headlined by the Sidney Opera House.

Because it was an unscheduled sea day, we were able to make a lunch reservation in the Pinnacle Grill which was fabulous. It was so filling we decided to skip dinner. In the afternoon, Barry Dryer gave an outstanding presentation on General MacArthur and Harry Truman. We also participated in the interdenominational Sunday service before enjoying some tea in the Lido.

The evening's entertainment was a trio of guys who call themselves 'The Aussie Boys'. They were so good we came back for the 10pm show after my wife sang in karaoke.  

The ship continued to rock and roll through the day and evening. Here's hoping we'd be able to snorkel in Noumea, New Caledonia tomorrow.

Day 19 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/15/16 - At Sea to Mystery Island

Once again we had a sea day. We spent much of the morning walking the deck and watching the flying fish. It's worth noting the that the flying fish in the area seem to be larger and they were flying much further. At times they seemed to fly out of sight.

Our first lecture was by Sandra Millikin on the Architecture of the Prison Colonies. It was followed by a what to see in Sydney by Kelly, our Destination Specialist. Unfortunately our ship is docking in White Bay which is a long ways from Circular Quay (pronounced Key) which is the normal cruise terminal and where much of the tourist action is found. Then Tom presented a history of New Caledonia.

Dinner was another Gala night and we had a lively discussion at our table in the stern of the Rotterdam dining room. Tom from Ottawa was a motorcyclist and we enjoyed lots of motorcycle conversation. The entertainment this night was an impressionist and comedian, Jeff Burghart, who we have seen previously on another cruise. We ended our day watching a Tom Cruise movie, Cast Away, which was filmed in Fiji and wax about a fellow who survived an airplane crash and was marooned on a desert island.

Day 18 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 10/14/16 - Dravuni Island

It's really fun to wake up in paradise. Dravuni Island comes as close as I can probably imagine. Dravuni Is an island in Fiji with a population of 200, a nice mountain, no roads or cars, surrounded by extensive coral reefs and beaches.  

We tendered in and walked through the village to the coral reef area about 1/2 mile down the island. Unfortunately the tide was out which made the 2 hours of snorkeling difficult although the reefs were beautiful and we saw some electric blue starfish, angelfish, and many other types of small fish. We decided to hike up the small mountain, and it was very scenic and I took a number of pictures. It was also an opportunity to scope out the beach on the other side of the island. Armed with that knowledge we hiked back down the mountain and through the jungle to the new beach opposite the village.

The new beach had a nice sandy section that went out 1/4 mile with a nice reef beside it. We snorkeled there for a few hours thoroughly enjoying it until my camera batteries died. There were lots of little fish. Afterwards we hiked back to the village and enjoyed some fresh coconut milk and the meat from the coconut. I also found a lamb BBQ that one of the villagers was cooking. For $5US it was a real treat and something we try to do in destinations we visit.  

We rode the tender back to the ship to pick up our cellphones and my second camera. Then back in the village I walked around taking candid photos while my wide listened to the village men singing. All too soon we tendered back to the ship for our 4:30pm departure. The tenders were restowed, the ship raised its anchor and pivoted 180° and sailed through the narrow channel in the coral reef guided by the pilot boat and 3 other small boats that marked the reef boundaries.

I showered and prepared for what turned out to be a most unusual dinner. My first clue should have been when the attendant pouring the water referred to me by name. During our meal the dining room manager came over and thanked me for a positive comment I had made earlier in the week in response to a survey. This pointed out to me how HAL takes the comments seriously and does pass them on to the staff.

My underwater camera appears to have failed as it won't turn on the viewing screen even though the power light is on.

The cast performed a stage show, HEAT, which had an energetic Latin theme. Afterwards we watched a terrific documentary titled Eddie the Eagle about an Englishman who had the dream of being an Olympic participant.

Remember to savor the journey despite the destination being important.

Day 17 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 10/13/16 - Fiji

This morning we woke up at the port of Suva, Fiji. As we had a shore excursion scheduled we just ate a quick breakfast, and met our group, and took a 40 minute bus ride out to the village of Sawani where we enjoyed a Kava ceremony (a non-alchoholic drink produced from the Kava root), plus some singing and dancing before we did a short walking tour through the village of around 500 people. The village is very dependent on tourism as there is high unemployment. But the people seem genuinely happy. We concluded our time there with more singing and dancing and an opportunity to purchase local handicrafts.  

We then took a longer bus ride back to the city where we left the bus to get sone local currency, purchase and mail some postcards, enjoy some local food (sheep neck! and cassavas). Both were yummy! We then wandered the streets and shopping malls and the very large produce market before returning to the ship for dinner, a movie (O'Keefe's Kingdom - filmed in Fiji in 1954), and a cultural show put on by a local dance and singing group that was quite good.

Bula is the word for greeting and throughout the day it was repeated countless times.

We watched the departure at shortly after 10:30pm with anticipation of a full day of snorkeling at Dravuni Island tomorrow. All in all it was a good day in Suva, Fiji.

Remember, while the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 13 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/08/16 - At sea to Samoa 4

Overnight was a turning point on this voyage. Around 1:30am we crossed the equator and we are finally in the Southern Hemisphere. As I write this, we are 3 degrees south of the equator.

To celebrate this occasion, the ship put on a King Neptune ceremony in the aft pool area. Kiki, the cruise director was the Prosecutor, someone played King Neptune, and the ship's senior officers were the jury. In groups of 4 or 5, various crew members (called Polliwogs) who had never crossed the equator were brought out of the 'brig' and had their charges presented to King Neptune. Examples of the charges included waitresses who spiked non-alcoholic drinks, or cabin attendants who called guests late at night, or the night auditor who padded guest bills with extra charges. King Neptune would hear the charges and sentence the polliwogs to kiss the fish (a frozen fish about 3 feet long) and lie on the table where they would be coated with a slippery slimey concoction. Then the Captain and the senior officers would pronounce sentence: thumbs up meant bake in the sun, thumbs down meant jump in the pool and remove the slippery concoction. It was all good fun and quite humorous. In the end King Neptune pardoned all of the Polliwogs and they all jumped on the pool. Now the polliwogs were considered 'shellbacks'

The rest of the day was much like the prior sea days: two lectures (Captain Cook by Sandra Millikin - not that good compared to other lectures including the one the day before & Barry Dreyer's excellent presentation on William Bligh and Mutinity on the Bounty). Ms. Millikin is doing a Bligh lecture tomorrow and we'll see how she compares with Mr. Dreyer.  

I got my 8,000 steps in walking deck 6 after lunch and saw a few more flying fish along with one White Sea bird (which must mean we're getting closer to land). There's been no trash or seaweed in the water since we left Kona 4 days ago. There's just been deep blue green seas with a slight chop and blue skies. Likely there will be some serious sunburns after today.

Here's a few comments about the ship after being onboard nearly two weeks. We're really liking stateroom 692 which is an inside room. We're virtually never there, but it's roomy and comfortable. Our stateroom attendant, Yudha, is very friendly. We have found all of the Lido (deck 11) meals to be fine with a good variety although I confess to eating the Asian cuisine for lunch and a standard fare for breakfast every day. The ship is in very good repair, the air conditioning works well in our stateroom in the heat. We are quite satisfied.

After dinner we went to deck 10 aft to watch the sunset and listen to Hawaiian music. The evening's entertainment was the cast stage show Droom which is a fairy tale stage show. Afterwards we watched Hologram for the King, a movie starring Tom Hanks.

Day 09 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 10/04/16 - Kona

What a wonderful day! We pulled into the Kona harbor and anchored. There was a delay of about 45 minutes in the tendering operation because the immigration personnel were tardy. We were in one of the earliest tenders and made our way to the Captain Zodiac tour where we received our safety briefing. There were ten of us along with Captain Collin and his first mate Buddha. The ride to the snorkeling site was a spirited 45 minute (12 mile) ride ride through the choppy water hanging on to a rope, sitting side saddle on the pontoon, and feet hooked under a rope on the floor. Surprisingly, not much splash came in the boat. One definitely needed a spirit of adventure.

In the bay we first saw dolphins and then were pointed to the monument that makes the spot where Captain Cook was killed. There we donned our snorkeling gear and slipped into the water for our 45 minute time there. The only major instruction was to not touch anything which meant don't stand up or touch the coral or fish.

After snorkeling (lots of pretty coral and fish but in my estimation not as many as I observaed last fall at Grand Turk in the Bahamas. It was cool to finally be able to use my glasses under my mask for the first time which allowed me to see the fish clearly. I was also to take some fine underwater pictures with my Nikon AW100 camera. At the end of our trip I'll upload those (and many others from the trip) to my picture sharing site. Before we headed back to Kona, we were blessed to observe lots of dolphins . Along the way we were treated to closeup views of several of many of the lava cliffs including one that looks like Pele, the goddess of fire. We also tried to find a whale shark in the tide line where the algae was blooming.

Back at the pier we boarded the Kona trolley which for $2.00 each gave us a 12.5 mile round trip out to the Sheraton south of town. We had a good chance to see many of the exhibits for the World Iron Man Triathathon Championship which will be held next week. On the way back we got off the trolley to walk through the exhibits which covered all aspects of participating in a triathathon and the Ironman in particular. We were definitely in the presence of the beautiful and athletic people. I was tempted to buy the latest GOPro Hero 5 camera, but restrained myself. My wife did purchase a new Garmin fitness tracker at a great price and some Iron Man jerseys.  

We enjoyed a light snack at the Paradise Cafe while watching the kid's races before reboarding the ship.

The tender reboarding was about as rough as we've experienced. The tender was moving up and down at least 18 inches so one had to time one's step to the ship's tender platform. After quick showers, we had a quick and lovely dinner with two people from Australia while watching the lights of Kona fade slowly in the distance as did our cell phone service. . . The MDR service has simply been outstanding!

A group called 'The Not Really Three Tenors' performed tonight and they were outstanding!! Afterwards we watched the classic movie, Hawaii with Julie Andrews and Max Von Sydow. The entertainment this cruise has been first class!

I should mention that over the past 3 days the carpet in our stateroom hallway on deck 5 was replaced. We now have this nice spongy feel when walking our hallway. We have observed carpet replacement throughout the ship.

Day 14 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 10/10/16 - At sea to Samoa 5

Where are you when tomorrow is not the next day?  

Some days need to start with a riddle. Overnight we magically advanced our clocks and calendars by 24 hours so that Saturday, October 8 became Monday, October 10.

Like every sea day so far this trip we had our devotional time with Father Robert. Afterwards this morning, however, we changed the routine up a bit by attending the ensaymada and cinnamon roll making demonstration by Bobby the head baker in the Culinary Arts Center. It was a nice demo, and the sampling was even better. Ensaymadas are essentially a cinnamon roll type pastry filled with cheese.

Sanda Millikin's lecture on the Mutiny on the Bounty followed. It was actually quite good and she showed more pictures of Pitcairn Island. My wife had a ukulele and hula rehearsal so my lunch was alone until Neil and Mickie from CC joined me.  

Kelly, our location guide showed lots of fish pictures in her presentation, Under the Keel. She was followed by Barry Dreyer who presented a military history of the takeover of Samoa by the ANZAC troops at the start of WWI. It seemed to me to be too detailed of an account for the audience, but was interesting to me as I enjoy military history and tactics.

The hula and ukulele classes performed in a special final Hawaiian stage show and our evening's main stage was a second performance of the Not Really Three Tenors with all new songs. The show was packed for both performances and they were quite talented in their singing. I also watched the movie 'Central Intelligence' while my wife participated in Karioke night in the Crow's Nest (which was well attended).

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 15 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 10/11/16 - Apia, Samoa

After sailing SSW from Hawaii for the past 5 days, the lights of Apia came into view before 7am this morning. We ate a quick breakfast and gathered our snorkeling gear and other items and met up with our Cruise Critic shore excursion group near the front office on deck 7. As we approached the dock, we were greeted by a Samoan dance troupe and serenaded until the ship was cleared for us to exit.  

Upon exiting, we made our way through security and off the ship, past the line of vendors and found our two tour guides from Samoa Scuba and Snorkle. We and another couple from Toronto were assigned to 'Ty' in his personal Subaru. Both guides are Aussies who live to dive and make their living doing scuba and snorkeling trips. After a brief stopover at a their dive shop to pay them and pick up some fins, we drove south across the island to the Acanoa Black Sand beach which was the setting for a current season of Survivor -Australia. Ty even served as a stunt double during the taping of the episode. The American version is due to come here in the near future to film a season. The snorkeling here was okay without much fish being spotted. The coral wasn't the prettiest but the coral canyons were quite impressive. 

Interestingly all the beaches and access are privately or family group owned. After leaving the beach we made our way east along the south coast to Le Sua which is a large lava tube some 100 meters across and at least that deep. It's filled with water from the sea by an underground tube. One gets into the water by descending on a 32 rung wooden ladder which had no handrail. It is apparently one of the top 10 swimming locations in the world. Once I got in the water with my snorkeling gear, I spotted a number of fish the largest of which was only 7-8" long. The smallest I saw was an electric blue fish about 2" long and there were a number of other varieties between those two sizes. Another treat while there was swimming through a cave into another lava tube which opened to the daylight. This was truly a treat!

From Le Sua we drove another 15 miles east along the south coast to the Aga Reef Resort where we were served a a simply fabulous lunch. I had the Mahi Mahi over fresh vegetables (catch of the day) while my wife had the Ahi tuna salad (actually we divided up the fish between us as Ahi is my favorite fish while she wanted part of mine). The views from the lunch table were not that bad also!

As we continued our drive around the island several things stood out for me. First was the sheer dense greenery which at the various villages was enhanced by color. Second was the presence of crypts in the front yards of many of the residents. The richer the person, the more ornate the crypt. In addition, we did see one cemetery on the NE corner of the island. Third was the presence of pigs and dogs running loose. Fourth was the lack of windows in many of the homes and construction of huge open air rooms which appeared to facilitate family gatherings. Fifth was the large number of churches in each of the little villages. There were Protestant, Catholic, LDS, and even one large Baha'i facility.

With an 'all aboard' time of 4:30pm, we reboarded about 4:25pm and the ship cast off its lines around 4:40; slowly backed away from the pier and pivoted counterclockwise to begin sailing through the narrow opening in the reef into open water as a small container ship approached the harbor.

After watching the departure, I showered to remove the sand and salt residue before eating dinner in the Lido on deck 11. We were intrigued by the prospect of mahi mahi, a minute steak, and sugar snap peas. While the fish wasn't nearly as good as lunch, it was still satisfying.

This night was considered a 'dark night', which meant there was no entertainment on the main stage. Instead, a DisneyNature film on the extreme value of flowers on the earth's life cycles was presented. Meryl Streep narrated it and it definitely took me to my happy place at times where the only view was the back of my eyelids.

I should add that I tried to use my Glocalme device twice today to get an internet connection but I was unsuccessful. There must have been insufficient demand for the Glocalme provider to negotiate a contract with the local provider.  

Remember, while the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 10 - Downunder 2016 - Wed - 10/05/16 - At sea to Samoa 1

We're now back to sea days which will take us to Samoa where we'll do more snorkeling.

The morning lecture was given by Sandra Millikin - Architectural Historian. She spoke about war memorials from a design standpoint. It was very interesting. The afternoon lecture by Barry Dryer from NZ was on Polynesian navigation and use of DNA to determine where the Polynesian ancestors came from. It was Taiwan and not South America as Thor Hyderdahl theorized in the 1940's! This was followed by a brief history of Hawaii by our Hawaiian maiden Heidi.

I then helped a fellow passenger by showing her how to compose email in notepad on my Netbook and then copying and pasting the text to her gmail composition box so that it doesn't use much connection time.

The spearfish dinner entree was really really good and we thought the marlin entree the night before was quite good as well.

The main stage entertainment was an accordionist, Annie Gong, who was quite good. The day was wrapped up by watching Seven Days Six Nights with Harrison Ford which was about a light plane crash in the South Seas.

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 11 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 10/06/16 - At sea to Samoa 2

Overnight the seas calmed and the wind died down which presented us with flat, blue scenic vistas to accompany another uncrowded breakfast which was followed by our customary prayer and reflection time at 9am.

The Shore Excursions Manager and the destination specialist gave a presentation on our ports of call up through Sydney and it looks like we are about to enjoy some terrific snorkeling. They were followed by an excellent presentation on Polynesian architecture enfluences in America like Trader Vic's, etc.

After lunch we walked Deck 6 in the hot and humid weather and saw a few flying fish but nothing else. The afternoon's lecture presented the economic case for the European explorations: cloves and nutmeg. A trivia question came out of this lecture: who is the leading purchaser of cloves? Afterwards while my wife practiced the hula, I arranged for a few shore excursions focused on snorkeling. A few of the Cruise Critic members met in the Crow's Nest to discuss using the CC website.  

The evening meal was another gala night and for the third night in a row I enjoyed a fish entree. All have been very good.

The cast show, Dance, was quite energetic; but once again it was one we had previously watched.  

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 12 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 10/07/16 - At sea to Samoa 3

As I've mentioned previously, I really like sea days because of their relaxing repetition. Once again there was a leisurely breakfast (which by the way for me is the same thing every day: scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, and a cup of green tea), a devotional time with Father Robert, and two lectures. The morning lecture by Sandra Millikin was on the enfluence of Polynesian arts and crafts and Barry Dreyer's afternoon lecture was a fascinating presentation of the Harrison clock which was used to establish accurate longitude. Mr. Harrison was able over the course of some 60 years able to shrink the size of an extremely accurate clock from one 4 feet tall to version 4 which was a several pound Pocketwatch. Captain Cook then used that clock to perform very accurate navigation and cartography.

Before the morning lecture, the Destination Specialist gave a very picturesque presentation about our upcoming ports of call with emphasis on snorkeling. We will definitely be in search of Nemo and Dory!

Of course there was the obligatory deck walks after lunch in attempt to keep a trim figure. Following another nice and speedy dinner in the main dining room with a couple from Las Vegas and one from Wisconsin, Barry Seacroft from Melbourne was the evening entertainment which was him playing the tenor saxophone. Afterwards we watched a short surfing movie, 'View from a Blue Moon'. While the photography was good, it was too much like a personal home movie.  

The day concluded by watching Donald Trump's apology on TV about his ugly comments recorded ten years ago and the endless commentary and analysis after that until falling asleep.

While the Destination is important, savor the journey. 

Day 16 - Downunder 2016 - Wed - 10/12/16 - At sea to Fiji

After a 'dark night', we had a slow day at sea today. There was only one lecture and it was at 3pm so much of the day was spent in a relaxation mode. For me that meant walking the deck and watching for flying fish. Actually I turned the activity into a game: each lap I would stop my walk at the starboard side opening and watch for a flying fish. As soon as I saw one I would walk another lap.  

The evening's entertainment was Annie Frances, an Australian gal who can really belt out the tunes. We've seen her on a previous ship. She was so good that we went to her second show. We also discovered that HAL onboard had not updated our credit card that had been compromised before the cruise even though I updated it on the HAL website before the cruise.

We also played a game show called 'Majority Rules' and came in second.

Tonight our clocks got set back an hour for our arrival into Fiji.

While the destination is important, savor the journey.

Day 08 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 10/03/16 - Honolulu

If we had tried to pack any more into today, i don't think we could have! With the ship's arrival at 7am, we were up a little after 6 and went up to the Lido for breakfast. Since we had been out of Internet contact for 5 days, we caught up on email and Facebook while eating breakfast. We disembarked the ship around 8 and attempted to locate our shore excursion which I had purchased through Trip Advisor which would take us to the Arizona Memorial, Pacific Aviation Museum, and a city tour before bringing us back to the ship.

I called the tour agency (Royal Hawaiian Limousine) and we were picked up about 8:45am using a 14 passenger Sprinter van. It was about a 30 minute drive out to the Arizona Memorial grounds. Those with purses or backpacks had to check them. Once that was done, we had to walk single file past a security guard. There was no scanner, wand or anything else. It was a totally common sense approach to security that I've not seen anywhere else. And it worked!

We were given our assigned visitation time ticket and then watched a 15 minute historical movie about December 7, 1941 before boarding a Navy launch out to the Memorial where we had 15-20 minutes to pay our respects and take pictures before reboarding the launch back to shore. The mighty Missouri battleship is now moored as a museum facing the Arizona.

Back on shore we got our National Parks Passports stamped and purchased a few souvenirs and caught a shuttle to the Pacific Aviation Museum where we had a quick 2 hours including a very brief lunch. A couple highlights for me were seeing a restored P-40 and a total unrestored B-17 that was salvaged from the New Guinea jungle.

Promptly at 1:30pm we began our city tour. I wished would have had at least an hour more to be able have seen the Arizona museum. The city tour was a whirlwind drive through town but gave us an orientation that was helpful. Back at the ship we hopped on the shuttle to the downtown WalMart (some shopping occurred there) which was located a few minutes walk from the Ala Moana shopping center where we met our friends for a casual dinner. We then walked back to the Wal Mart where I purchased a couple gallons of distilled water for my CPAP machine. We caught the next to the last shuttle back to the ship and arrived in time to catch the 8:30pm Polynesian Dancing Show.

We departed the terminal at 10pm and sailed out of the Honolulu harbor as I wrote this while waiting for the 10:30pm Mexican buffet! It seems my dinner meal of abalone and poi wasn't enough! And yes the poi was good. I had two helpings.

Day 07 - Downunder 2016 - Sun - 10/02/16 - At Sea to Hawaii 5

Today was our last sailing day to Hawaii and it was like most of the previous 4 days. Both lecture series concluded with the Space lecture being about ET and the improbability that we have visited by extra-terrestrial beings. The Hawaiian lecture series ended on an up note about Bernice Bishop, one of the last descendants of King Kamehameha. Her legacy was to endow the K-12 education of the Hawaiian children. The current value of the endowment is some 11 billion dollars which ranks it right up with the major Ivy League colleges.

In the Sunday Protestant service, I assisted by reading the Gospel passage and in serving communion. It was well attended.

More flying fish were spotted today, although they weren't in the quantities like yesterday. In the afternoon there was one final Hawaiian stage show performance featuring Hawaiian guitarists and a singer, hulas, a group ukulele performance by passengers as well as a passenger hula performance.

Hula ending.  My wife is 3rd from the left

The weather was overcast, but much warmer than the previous days in the high 70's Fahrenheit. The seas had high swells in the early part of the day, but those mellowed as the day progressed.

After another fine dinner in the MDR, we watched a variety show with the comedian, magician, and singer. Once again they were all very good. Rather than listen to pre-recorded ABBA music, we listened to Hawaiian music played by Van the Piano man.

The clocks are to be turned back once again tonight and we are due to dock in Honolulu at 7am. We have a tour to the Arizona and Airplane museum, but nothing else is planned.

After a week on the Maasdam, we really like the ship. It's in good repair, it's got a good feel to it, it's a nice size, the food service is prompt and tasty, and there are enough activities for our taste.  

Day 06 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 10/01/16 - At Sea to Hawaii 4

It finally happened today. For every cruise we have taken, one of my trip goals is to spot flying fish. This afternoon as I began my afternoon walk, I spotted the first school of them as they left the water to escape the wake of the ship. As we continued to walk we spotted more from time to time. One of our cruise mates hadn't seen them yet, so we took him to a likely spot and showed him how to spot them. Lo and behold it worked! We spotted quite a few and enjoyed some nice conversation as well.

Rather than recount the rest of the day which was much like the previous two sea days, let's just say the Mars lecture in the morning which was preceded by the Philipinnean crew show (first time I've seen it presented during the daytime) and the afternoon lecture (quite a tragic story) about the children of King Kamahamaha were quite good. 

Our MDR dinner was quite nice with a nautical theme and we were joined by a couple from New Orleans we had cruised with 2 years ago on the Prinsendam plus a couple from Adelaide. We received some nice tips from the Australian couple about sightseeing Australia. We think we are closer to a plan for the 10 days in Australia after the cruise. It should be interesting.

The evening's entertainment was a very good ventriloquist, Jeff McBride. The outside entertainment this far have been top notch.

Another thing we do on cruises is catch up on movies we either have not seen or wish to see. Tonight after the ventriloquist, we watched 'Amelia' about Amelia Earhart, and really liked it. 

Tomorrow will be the last sea day for a few days.

Day 05 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 09/30/16 - At Sea to Hawaii 3

As we sailed further southwest, the seas were getting calmer, deeper, and the motion on the ship less and less. It was another lazy wakeup, a quick breakfast, and off to our 9am interdenominational reflection and prayer time. Afterwards I attended a flower arranging class where the onboard florist made two arrangements for later display in the Neptune Lounge and Main Dining Room. Dr. Kuznetz gave the first of two talks on Mars and beyond. This talk also went long as Dr. Kuznetz fielded lots of questions.  

Lunch in the Lido was once again good and led to a 2 mile walk on Deck 6 followed by part 2 of the Mutinity on the Bounty Series and then a presentation on the history of Hawaii. On the way out of the theatre, a couple stopped me because of the shirt I was wearing which says on the back, 'Borders are only in your mind'. We enjoyed a lengthy conversation about motorcycle riding (they were also motorcyclists). This was actually the second conversation of this type today so the shirt must be communicating.

Dinner in the main dining room was once again wonderful with a couple from Sydney and two widows (one from Vancouver and one from Arizona). During dinner the Captain came on the PA system requesting blood donors axtgere was a critically ill passenger in the infirmary. Later we learned that at least 50 people lined up to donate blood and that the passenger was in stable condition.

At the Showroom at Sea, Jeff McBride presented an amazing magic show (probably the most entertaining we've ever seen). We ended our evening early coming back to the room and prepared our first laundry bag of the trip (free for 4 Star mariners like us) and watched a replay of the Boston/Blue Jays baseball game. Tonight the clocks would turned back yet another hour!

Day 04 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 09/29/16 - At Sea to Hawaii 2

Overnight the ship rocked and rolled much more than the two previous nights. There were creaks and squeaks throughout the cabin, but since I'm a deep sleeper it didn't bother me. We woke up to the news of the NJ train crash and made our way to the Lido for a quick breakfast before attending the interdenominational reflection and prayer time in the Wajang Theatre. It seemed that on this day we finally settled into the routines that we would be following for days to come.

In the hour before the next lecture, I used the time to continue my read of The Great Reef. This morning's lecture was on the topic of the International Space Station by Dr. Kuznetz. It was really good and he presented how the payback on the station was 8 to 1 and showed the real life benefits resulting from the station.

Lunch was a bit crowded, but the salad I had was quite good. While there, the Chief Engineer came through and I recognized him from last year's Seattle to Singapore cruise, so I went over to say hi. It turned out that they brought him back from retirement to fill in on the Seattle to Sydney segment. When I indicated it would be more money for him, he just grinned and said, "No, I have my wife with me!" We exchanged smiles at that comment indicating our mutual understanding of the concept although I have to concede my wife is modest in her shopping.

This led to a one mile walk around Deck 6 and then more reading while watching the Pareo tying class. For the uninitiated, a Pareo is a simple rectangular piece of decorative fabric that's tied strategically around one's body to form clothing. It's a common form of apparel in the Hawaiian and South Sea islands.

Afterwards, Tom Goltz presented part A of his presentation on Captain Bligh and the Mutinity on the Bounty. 

There are a number of self service laundries onboard the ship including one on our deck 5, so I took the time to press a few cotton shirts one of which will be used for the first gala night tonight. With HAL's relaxation of the old formal night dress code to the new Gala night, I'll just wear a white shirt and tie, slacks, and dress shoes.

The Gala dinner service was the fastest we have ever experienced on any cruise in our memory. So far we're really pleased with the MDR service. We enjoyed dinner conversations with guests from Australia and Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Captain's Toast was the first time that he was introduced by name and we followed that by watching the singers and dancers in Atlantic Crossing which was songs from Britain that came to America which we've seen many times before. On a much lighter note we ended the day watching the 10pm showing of 'Finding Dory'.

Day 03 - Downunder 2016 - Wed 09/28/16 - At Sea to Hawaii

It was our first day at sea and the morning started slow, very slow. The clocks were rolled back one hour so we gained an extra hour of sleep. There was a bit more motion to the ship and the bathroom sink drain made gurgling sounds throughout the night until I ran some tap water into the drain.

After another uncrowded breakfast in the Lido we made our way to the 9am Prayer and Reflection time which was led by an Australian man, Robert, who lives in the Seattle area. It turned out we had some long term connections at a school my wife formerly taught at. The time in this session was very refreshing.  

We then made our way to the Crow's Nest for a Cruise Critic meet and greet. It was a great time to finally meet the people who were to that point just screen names or more fundamentally 1's and 0's.

Carpet replacement 

For this leg of the cruise to Hawaii, there were two major lecture series. The first was on NASA presented by Lawrence Kuznutz who's NASA career involved designing space suits. Today's lecture was about the basics of NASA and space related topics. His lecture went overtime about 25 minutes which was the longest of any lecture on HAL that we have attended.

Lunch in the Lido was a bit more crowded but the Asian cuisine was great. After lunch I curled up in the Showroom At Sea for an hour to continue reading my book on the Great Reef.

The afternoon lecture was presented by Tom Goltz on Captain Cook. It was a good presentation. More reading of my book followed along with over a mile walk around the deck which was a bit chilly. Warmer weather should be ahead of us.

We enjoyed our first dinner in the main dining room including some spirited discussion with a Canadian couple about the upcoming US presidential election.

Patrick McMahon, a singer from Australia was the evening's entertainment. He was a spirited singer of cover songs of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, and Kenny Rogers. We capped our evening off with the 9pm showing of the Elvis and Nixon movie in the Wajong theatre.

Tonight we had another hour setback of the clocks which gave another extra night's sleep.

Day 02 - Downunder 2016 - Tue 09/27/16 - Vancouver

After a slow and winding cruise up Puget Sound, we were awakened around 7:30am by the announcement that the ship was cleared for passengers to go ashore. Since we knew we were just going to do things in the immediate area, we dressed and went up for breakfast in the Lido which was not very crowded at all. Was this a new trend?

We then made our way off the ship with no need to clear Canadian immigration since we were considered 'in transit' passengers who would be returning to the ship. We walked around Canada Place and found the Fly Over Canada Disney type film. It is a must do item if one is at Canada Place. Afterwards we found the local Tourist Info office and purchased tickets for the Vancouver Lookout located a few blocks away from the pier (discounted a few dollars from purchasing them at the tower).

The views from the tower really give a nice perspective on the city and the harbor. Since we had to be back on the ship by 2pm and they warned us clearing US Immigration might take some time, we left the tower just after 12 noon and walked back to the terminal with a brief stop to enjoy a humbow from a street vendor.

The Maasdam is barely visible beyond the Norwegian  Jewel

Inside the terminal, the line for US Immigration (actually preclearance for entering Hawaii) was quite long. However the processing went quite smooth using the automated kiosks. Back on the ship, I discovered I had forgotten a camera battery at the security checkpoint, so I went back, and low and behold, it was there! It was a grey battery and we used grey trays which was what caused me to miss it. Fortunately I didn't need to be re-screened!

We enjoyed a nice salad lunch in an uncrowded Lido. We were beginning to like this! There was a nice & uncrowded Mariner 4 and 5 Star cocktail reception (hosted by Mike the Hotel Director we had on the Statendam last year to Singapore and Kiki the new cruise director) from 2-3 during which we heard repeated PA calls for specific guests to go to the US Immigration for inspection. In the end, one couple ended up delaying the ship's departure but we were finally able to sail around 4pm. And the Norwegian Jewel left shortly after us. The only tooting of our ship's horn occurred as we approached crossing under the Lion's Gate Bridge. Soon we left the harbor area and headed down past Victoria and into the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Interestingly all the while, we had great cell service to check those last minute messages.

Dinner was served in a very uncrowded Lido at 5:30pm as we wanted to watch the 6pm movie, Captain Fantastic, which was set in the Pacific NW. We certainly recognized many of the background scenes.

The evening entertainment was the stock HAL show, Listen to the Music, in which the Cruise Director, Kiki, introduced the entertainment cast and the HAL Cats as well as the singers and dancers performed. One singer, Susie, and the guitarist were on previous cruises we were on. Later, we enjoyed the Neptunes who are a trio consisting of a pianist, drummer, and base player playing oldies in the Ocean Bar before heading back to the room for the night.

Today we reached some conclusions about the ship and our preferences. We are really liking the small size of the ship. There is an uncrowded feel to it and we like the live entertainment. The ship is well kept up. The outside Deck 12 upper viewing area is unencumbered by glass walls.

Day 01 - Downunder 2016 - Mon 09/26/16

Finally embarkation day is here. All checklist tasks have been completed, and our friend, Bob, picked us up just before 11am. It was a shirt 1/2 hour drive to the cruise ship terminal at Pier 91 in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle.

The embarkation process went smooth and quickly we were on board. Having a 4 Star (2nd highest) loyalty status has its benefits. It felt good to be back in familiar surroundings even though the Maasdam is a new ship to us. We found our inside stateroom which is 692 and one stateroom from the stern on deck 5. This stateroom is larger and better laid out than the one we had in June on a newer and larger ship, the MS Koningsdam.  

             The Zaandam as we departed from Pier 91

We left our belongings in the cabin and proceeded on up to the Lido for some lunch. The first thing that struck us both was the reduced size of the Lido compared to the Koningsdam. The food selections and delivery method were totally comparable. We met another couple from Australia there before heading out to scope out the ship for the next few hours before our lifeboat drill.

Berthed next to us was the Zaandam which we had sailed on in February in South America. The lifeboat drill was uneventful, and we were delayed from departing about 1/2 hour because we were taking on additional fuel. During that time we were able to secure a 5:30pm Pinnacle Grill dinner seating time. We then spent time unpacking for the next two months. This is one reason we like the longer cruises.

Dinner in this upscale restaurant was excellent as we cruised alongside Whidbey Island. The portions were so large and we were even provided an anniversary cake which I unfortunately could not eat because of its high sugar content. At 9pm there was a comedian, Kermet Apia, who was really funny and bed came none too quickly after that since the movie was not appealing and the TV reception went out.